1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to laminate compositions (products) for use in combination with wood laminate flooring over concrete subflooring.
2. Background Art
The floor system in a building contains a subflooring and a finish flooring.
A wood floor system has wood or steel joists supporting both the subflooring and the finish flooring. The subflooring is often (e.g., one-inch thick) softwood or hardwood boards or plywood panels. The finish flooring is typically thinner and often is hardwood boards. Wood floor systems are usually used in residences or apartments.
The floor system in steel-framed buildings is typically supported by open-web steel bar joists or steel beams. The floor deck or subflooring on the bar joists or beams can be, for example, a steel deck, a precast concrete slab or panels, or a precast hollow-core concrete slab or panels.
The floor system can be a reinforced-concrete floor system. This type of floor system is used in buildings, usually multi-floor buildings. The floor system in a reinforced structure is commonly constructed in a monolithic manner with the structural framing system. The reinforced-concrete subflooring can be flat-slab construction (reinforced in two directions), flat-plate construction or slab-band construction.
The floor finish or wearing surface is located over the wood, steel or concrete subfloor. The floor finish can be wood or resilient tile or sheet. The wood floor finish can be softwood or hardwood--usually oak, yellow pine or maple are used. The shapes and finishes of the wood floor finish are commonly matched flooring, plank-finished flooring, parquet flooring and wood-block flooring. The resilient flooring can be linoleum, asphalt tile, or vinyl or rubber tile or sheet.
When wood flooring is installed directly onto a concrete floor in a building, the result is a floor which has essentially no resiliency. People walking and standing on such floors often have tired and stressed feet, legs, knees, backs, etc., plus they sometimes suffer damage to their feet, knees, etc., particularly over extended and repetitive periods of standing or walking.
In the construction of buildings having concrete subfloors, it is known to install a thin layer of polyethylene film on the concrete subflooring, followed by a layer of polyethylene foam sheet on the thin polyethylene film, and vice versa, and then to install wood flooring on top of the polyethylene foam sheet layer. None of the layers or flooring are adhered to any of the other layers or flooring. The polyethylene foam sheet takes out small irregularities in the top surface of the concrete. The polyethylene foam sheet also provides some sound reduction. Slight cushioning is provided by the polyethylene foam sheet to alleviate the problems suffered by persons walking and standing on such floors.
The polyethylene film is usually in strip form and is laid down so that the strip edges overlap by a few inches. The polyethylene foam sheet is supplied to and applied by the art in the form of long strips. The installer lays two foam strips and then tapes the facing edges together, then lays another foam strip and goes through the taping operation, etc.